April 26, 2018

Puerto Rico lost electricity again on April 18th, seven months after Hurricane Maria first knocked out the island's power grid. For people in some remote rural areas, the blackout was more of the same. Their power had yet to be restored.

The dangerous fragility of Puerto Rico's energy systems has put other Caribbeancountries on high alert. Across the region, electric grids are dated, ailing, and overburdened—making it easy work for a powerful passing storm.

Now that task seems far more urgent. To move beyond fossil fuels, Caribbean countries must transform their energy systems by building in new, greener sources of power. That will also make electric grids more resilient to weather extremes because they will be decentralized—pulling from a diverse array of power sources.

CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE CARIBBEAN

Unfortunately, I believe that climate change will also complicate the region's transition toward renewable energy. The Caribbean is comprised of island nations, which are the world's most vulnerable places when it comes to rising seas, changing weather patterns, and other effects of global warming.

The Caribbean is already seeing more weather extremes. Research suggests, for example, that northern Caribbean countries like Cuba, Jamaica, and the Bahamas have gotten rainier over the past three decades, though historical data is limited.

WHY TRADITIONAL ENERGY SOURCES NEED TO ADAPT

Installing more wind, solar, and hydropower—the world's most reliable and common renewable energy options—would seem to be a more obvious step in the right direction. Between 2015 and 2016, the global capacity of these green power sources rose 9 percent —nearly half of which comes from the widespread adoption of solar panels.

Changing precipitation and temperature patterns in the Caribbean also affect hydro and solar power. More rain in the region's north means fewer sunny days than anticipated. Higher temperatures in other countries suggests increased likelihood of drought, leading rivers to run dry.

Climate change is a profoundly unpredictable process, though. That makes it harder for weather models to correctly identify which renewable energy infrastructure should be built where.

THE FUTURE IS NOW

The Caribbean is making progress in planning for a future of more renewable energy, though.

Jamaica aims to install new automated weather stations that will collect real-time weather data nationwide. This initiative will help meteorologists across the entire Caribbean better predict future weather, which in turn supports the development of renewable energy systems.

So will a new climate model developed by my colleagues at the University of the West Indies. The system, called SMASH, can aid planners in siting wind farms and predicting the path and severity of the hurricanes that could mangle turbines.

A new Caribbean drought atlas from Cornell University has compiled climate data going back to 1950. The tool won't just help sustain food production during dry times; I believe it will also provide engineers precipitation data that's critical to planning hydropower enterprises.

Wind farms, too, are adapting to the instability of this changing climate. Once firmly pegged to the ground, turbines can now float thousands of feet above the land, spooled out like kites to capture winds where they blow hardest. Floating turbines will also fare better during hurricanes.

All of these technologies may eventually help Caribbean countries navigate their way through climate change toward a real renewable energy boom. But the climate change conundrum won't be solved before the 2018 hurricane season hits.

This article was originally published onThe Conversation. Read theoriginal article. Masaō Ashtine is a lecturer in alternative energy at the University of the West Indies—Mona Campus.

April 10, 2018

Today in front of the combined Senate committees Mark Zuckerberg made a key distinction. It is assumed that Facebook accumulates data on its users that it then sells to advertisers. But this is not the case at all. Facebook accumulates data on its users that the users allow Facebook to collect. On the other hand advertisers come to Facebook and describe in detail the kind of people they want to reach with their advertisements.

Facebook then compares the advertisers' request to the data that Facebook has collected. Facebook then selects the individuals who will see the advertisers who are appropriate and it connects the Facebook users with the advertiser. Actually an algorithm does it. It does not inform the advertiser about any of the actual data used to match it with the Facebook user under any circumstances.

Advertiser A wants to advertise snow shoes to individuals who need snow shoes, perhaps, and those who can afford snow shoes. Facebook scours its users for information about the amount of snow they endure. It looks for anything that might be said about snow and snow shoes by its members. Facebook decides which of those who had issues with snow --- probably everybody who has issues with snow --- and Facebook then allows the snow shoe advertiser to access each and every person who has issues with snow who is on Facebook and who -- and this important, who has not specifically said they don't want advertisements for snow shoes or any other shoes.

You talk about cars and they connect the car ads to you. You talk about sports cars and the connect the sports car companies (who have paid to be connected) with you. You talk about Chevys and you get some Chevy ads. And for your convenience you get the Chevy ads from Chevy companies that are close to your location, which the local Chevy companies pay for. But the ads are always a pass through from Facebook to you based on your data and not from the Chevy dealer. He may be wasting his money advertising to you. But he will never know it.